Chapter 13

“Why did you go?”

Julian followed Tatiana into the guest room. She started to undress as if she didn’t care that he stood right beside her, clad only in a pair of sweatpants.

“Do you have any idea what could have happened?” His stare traveled from her muddy feet and over her wrinkled dress, ending on her messy hair. Whatever makeup she’d had on earlier was now gone.

After several attempts to unzip the back of her dress, Tatiana sat on the bed. “Are we really going to do this now?”

“Do what? Have a conversation about you going to The Raven Room and taking Meredith with you?”

“That didn’t take long.” She faced him for the first time since she had returned to the condo. “Who told you?”

“How can you be so reckless?”

Tatiana started to fight with the zipper again and Julian, both frustrated and impatient, moved toward her. As soon she felt his hands on her back, she pulled away.

“Don’t touch me.” She lifted her feet into the bed, smearing mud onto the white duvet cover.

“You’re filthy. Where are have you been?”

Tatiana ignored him.

“Where’d all the dirt come from?”

She refused to answer.

“Have you taken a good look at yourself?” He caught himself screaming at her, but didn’t try to stop. “You’re here in my home, covered in dirt, dressed in borrowed clothes, with no friends, no money, no place to go. Hiding from the police and your husband. You’ve run out of options. I’m it. I’m the end of the road for you. So when I tell you going to The Raven Room is a bad idea, you listen.” Julian closed his hands on the back of her dress and pulled hard. “You need me Tatiana, so you do what I tell you.”

The zipper finally came undone and so did the dress. Tatiana didn’t react to the sound of fabric tearing. Julian, with brusque but purposeful movements, tore off her clothes.

Grabbing Tatiana by the arm, he took her to the bathroom and dragged her to the shower. As he turned on the water, he let go of her and she lowered herself to her knees on the tiles. Julian crouched by her, hot water falling on both of them. With her forehead almost resting on the shower floor, her hair clung to her. For the first time since the night he had found her on the street, he saw her naked body.

He admired her scars to their smallest detail. With no symmetry to them, they stood out—small and large—scattered on her pale skin. While he abhorred what they represented, they only made him want to touch her more.

Julian dug his nails into his palms. He refused to succumb to the urge to run his fingers along the discolored lines on her shoulders.

As he turned his back on Tatiana, she slammed her fists into him. She wasn’t strong enough to harm him but her reaction startled him.

She hit him again. “This is all your fault. Everything has always been your fault.”

He took hold of her wrists and pressed her against the bathroom wall, forcing her to cease her attack on him.

“My sister is dead.” She tried to break free from his hold. “She’s dead because of you.”

Julian flinched at her words.

She kicked out, and he pressed his body to hers, making it impossible for her to strike him again.

“Look at me.” Tatiana demanded. “Are you afraid you’ll see her in me? Or do I remind you of what you did?”

When Julian didn’t comply, she bit his naked chest. He cried out in pain. He continued to hold her wrists with one hand and got her mouth away from him by gripping her chin with the other.

“Steven killed Sofia,” she blurted out. “He’s the one who killed my sister.”

“Why…” Julian’s voice cracked. “How do you know that?”

“I was there,” she paused, swallowing hard. “But I got away. If he finds me, I’m afraid of what he’ll do to me.”

“Why did he kill her?”

She attempted to break free but he held her more forcefully.

“Tell me!”

“You!” She shouted. “He killed her because of you!”

Words failed Julian.

“Steven knows who you are,” she continued. “I had told him about the years you lived with us when we were kids. I told him everything. When you came up to me at The Raven Room, he thought I had gotten involved with you.”

“Why did he think you’d do that?”

She had gone very still, no longer struggling against him. “He didn’t believe me when I said I’d never fuck you. After security kicked you out of the club, I thought he’d kill me.”

“He almost did,” he whispered more to himself than to her. Tatiana’s bruises had been some of the worst Julian had ever seen.

“I tried to make him understand it was Sofia. Not me. Steven wanted to ask her himself so we went to the New Jackson Hotel.”

“Why did he care if she and I were involved?”

“He didn’t. He hit me again in front of her. She tried to get him off me. She tried to protect me. He pushed her.”

Tears ran down her face, over his fingers, and that made Julian let go of her chin. He didn’t want to feel her tears on his skin.

“It gave me a chance to run out,” she said.

Julian pictured Sofia’s lifeless body. He squeezed his eyes shut to make the image disappear.

“Have you told anyone else?” he asked.

Tatiana shook her head.

“Don’t tell Meredith. Do you understand?”

“I’d never do that.”

His chest throbbed where she had bit him and Julian didn’t know if it was blood or water from her wet hair that dripped down his stomach.

“How do I know you’re not making this up to incriminate your husband?” he asked.

“Steven hit me in front of you. When you thought I was Sofia, you had no hesitations believing he was a man capable of violence. Now, because it’s me telling you he killed Sofia, you have doubt.”

It didn’t matter to Julian that it had been Tatiana and not Sofia whom he had seen Thompson hit. He loathed Thompson just the same.

“I’ve thought about getting a gun,” Tatiana said. “Taking a taxi to our house, ringing the doorbell, and then, when he opens the door, shooting him right between the eyes. Straightforward justice.”

The scenario Tatiana described brought Julian pleasure. He wanted Thompson dead.

“Steven won’t get locked up for what he did to my sister.” When she pressed her face to Julian’s neck he didn’t stop her. But instead of biting him once more, she kissed him. Her gesture, absent of eroticism, brought him unexpected comfort. “I know too much. He’ll never let me go.”

“He won’t hurt you again.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist. “The police don’t care what I have to say about Sofia’s murder. Steven has friends there.” She held Julian tighter. “If the police find me or if Steven does, it’s the same thing. They’ll make me disappear.”

He didn’t hug her back. “You’re right. I’m the reason Sofia is dead. Ever since the beginning, I’ve always been bad for both of you. If you stay here, near me, it won’t end well.”

Tatiana didn’t let go of him. “I’ve been surviving men my whole life. I’ve survived you once before. I’ll do it again.”